Humber Sprint Tri 2010

Lincsquad take team prize and title. Sunday 3rd of October saw another great turnout for Lincsquad in the Humber Sprint triathlon.
Lincsquad actually won this event earlier in the year but couldn’t bask in their glory as it was incorrectly awarded to Barracudas.
No such problems this time although Lincsquad had to draft in the on form Steve Clark to make certain as only the top 3 from each team counted towards the prize.
 
The 9 strong contingent didn’t have it easy when met with atrocious weather conditions and a revamped extension to the bike course to 14.5 mile long. In fact, the course had a few changes in that the swim transition was further than last time but thankfully the run was slightly shorter. Maybe the organizers took pity on us having already extended the bike course?
 
Somebody who didn’t seem to mind the rain was motorbike racer Dave Hinch who capitalized on the over-cautious riders down the hills to finish just 3 places behind his season long nemesis and good mate Rob Wood. Long may that rivalry continue. Paul Ralph narrowly missed out on a top 50 position after a creditable performance. Paul, pop over and have a chat next time mate as some of us are still looking to put a face to the name.
 
Amanda Clements certainly knows how to pick her first triathlon, talk about a baptism of fire in those conditions. Still, not to be deterred Amanda put in a great performance before shooting off and missing the team photo, next time Amanda.
Getting the taste from last week’s Brigg Sprint, Becky Bowen and Kate Lancaster couldn’t let this end of season opportunity escape without having one last blast. Whether they secretly rued this decision when looking out of the window at 05:30 that morning who knows? Their high spirits at the end of the race would indicate they made the right decision. Both girls put in some good times and even Kate’s puncture couldn’t dampen her enthusiasm or was that because she won a ‘spot prize that was better than Clarky’s?
 
Phil Gibbs, following his top ten placing at last weeks Brigg Sprint was a valuable assett towards the Team prize. Phil’s ever impressive running saw him take eleventh spot, rubber stamping the top 3 highest positions.
 
Lincsquad’s superhero Steve Clark didn’t quite get it his own way this week but not through want of trying. Losing his timing chip in the pool only encouraged the British National Quadrathlon Champion to battle even harder. Despite being almost half a length behind me in the pool he’d eaten into that lead down the 300m run into transition and was out of T1 and onto the bike before me!!!
After yet another strong bike leg from Steve he knew he couldn’t let up on the run with his rivals breathing down his neck. A superb run saw Steve take the second place prize overall and more chocolate muffins to go with the plaudits.
 
For me, the swim went well but I must remember the run to transition is still part of the race! My bike leg was poor and it didn’t help watching Clarky ride off into the distance when my chain fell off. The run (for me) wasn’t too bad but still nowhere near good enough to challenge the top boys. Must try harder throughout the winter! Second in my age group was nice though. I don’t think my chain falling off would have had any bearing on that result anyway. My 7th along with Phil’s 11th and Steve’s 2nd was enough to hold off competition from Barracudas and the well supported Racing TNT team.
 
1  Rich Hunt  01:01:59 Senior 1 Male TRI KUDU 00:06:25 11 4 00:01:05 00:38:02 36.8 km/h 1 1 00:00:33 00:15:53
2nd  Steve Clark        01:03:32  Sen (2nd)    6:05            1:06        39 ish                      16:21(3)
7th  Steve Grocock    01:07:39  Vet (2nd)     5:55 (5)      1:05    00:41:05  (5)    0.43     18:50(36)
11th  Phil Gibbs          01:10:40  Vet (4th)     6:52 (18)    1:32    00:43:44 (13)   0.51     17:40(15)
40th  Rob Wood         01:17:29  Sen (23rd)  11:11 (119)  1:15   00:44:56  (19)  0.40    19:26 (49)
44th  David Hinch       01:19:09  Vet (14th)  09:15 (88)   1:31   00:45:59  (26)   1:04    21:19 (73)
53th  Paul Ralph         01:21:26  Vet (20th)  08:47 (76)   1:48   00:49:10  (46)   0:48    20:52 (68)
114th  Becky Bowen   01:42:56 Sen (19th)  11:08 (118)  3:07   00:58:54  (99)   1:52    27:54 (123)
120th  A Clements     01:46:52  Sen (23rd)  10:52 (114)  4:04   01:03:49  (113)  1:56   26:10 (113)
127th  K Lancaster     01:55:29  Sen (26th)  10:34 (109)  3:22   01:15:36  (126)  1:40    24:16 (106)